Bangalore: There is an infamous ritual of babies being thrown from the top of a temple in Bagalkot to make them stronger, and there is the 'made snana' or rolling over left-over food eaten by Brahmins at the Kukke Subramanya temple near Mangalore. Yes, you read it right. These are some of the 13 bizarre rituals that could land you in jail if the proposed Karnataka Prevention of Superstitious Practices Bill, 2013 comes into force.
But the proposed Bill is brewing up politics in the state. The Bill which seeks to make bizarre rituals punishable has been strongly opposed by the BJP and other Hindu groups. So will it get to be tabled in the state assembly or has the state government chickened out?
According to the draft prepared by the National Law School, the Bill also proposes death sentence for human sacrifice. Acts like adopting violent methods to cure diseases, performing black magic to harm a person and rituals involving self-inflicted injuries will be treated as cognizable offences. Maharashtra, too, had enacted a similar ordinance following the murder of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.
The Siddaramaiah government's efforts to table the Bill in the state Assembly's winter session in Belgaum this month has been met with opposition from the BJP and Hindu groups like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal.
The Bill is particularly against the Hindu sentiments, they say. "If they come out with this Bill, it will definitely carry a stigma. So BJP is voicing the feeling of the public," said state BJP spokesperson and former Law Minister S Suresh Kumar. "The government is trying to ban religious practices by labelling them as superstitious practices. Let there be a debate," he said.
The government seems to have developed cold feet after such opposition and the threat of protests. The tabling of the Bill in the Assembly has been stalled for now.
But the Congress government has defended the Bill, denying that it is against Hindu sentiments. "Whatever is there, it is within the purview of the constitution. There's nothing against anyone or any religion," said Karnataka Law Minister TB Jayachandra. "This may take some time, because there are reactions for and against it. The department has to look into it. It is still under preparation," he said.
The proposed bill also seeks to ban common practices like astrology hasn't gone down too well will the Hindu groups either. "Astrology on TV shows should be banned but people should be allowed to visit astrologers privately," said Sri Veerabhadra Channamalla Mahaswamigalu, a well-known pontiff in Bangalore. "We should neither accept everything nor completely reject everything," he added.
Even as the Opposition parties and Hindu groups bank on the Hindu sentiments to oppose the Bill, if the proposed Anti Superstition Bill comes into force, it can curb some age-old harmful practices based purely on blind faith.
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